All you have to do, to find out if you are a Buddhist, is answer three questions. If you answer these three questions with "yes", then you're a Buddhist. Now, it really doesn't matter whether you want to be a Buddhist or not. If you answer these three questions with "yes", then you're automatically going to be a Buddhist. You might wish to know what the three questions are. OK, I am going to shift a little first, and then tell you what the three questions are.
How many of you here in the hall had polio? The disease polio, and have shriveled-up legs because of the disease, does anyone have this? No. None of you have a shriveled-up leg, none of you had polio. Why? Because there is a polio vaccine, and all of you probably were given it as a child. You probably received a shot or a sugar cube, whatever it was, you probably were given a vaccine so you would never have polio. Great.
Have you ever felt so happy that they have a vaccine to guard you against polio? How many of you actually know who discovered the cure for polio? Raise your hands, how many of you know who it was? That's not very many of you, roundabout a third, and most of you are assistants at the Wat, you've heard this story before. The majority of you don't even know who discovered the cure for polio. Yet that person saved your leg from being shriveled-up.
You probably have never actually thought about how great it is to have this vaccine. You probably have never thought about this person. What if the person came into our room right now. His name was Dr. Salk. What, if he came into the room right now, would you want to thank him? Would there be a feeling, a wish, to thank him? Some of you might be a little confused because you are not even sure, and might be thinking, "Well, what's the big deal. Polio?". But the thing is that man, Dr. Salk, spent a long time in the laboratories working really hard to discover the cure to a disease that was crippling about fifty-thousand Americans every year. I do not know how many around the world, but fifty-thousand Americans had polio every year.
I grew up with a kid who had a shriveled leg. He couldn't play all the sports that everyone else could. He was a nice guy but his leg was shriveled up. There is a woman who lives down the hill with a shriveled leg. Those are people who were not given the polio vaccine, because it was around 1952 when the vaccine came out. Now, Dr. Salk, the person who discovered the vaccine, if we could meet him, we would want to thank him. He died around 1997. He lived forty more years after he discovered the vaccine. He could see so many people all around the world benefiting from what he had done. So I imagine that he had lots of sympathetic joy. He discovered it, yet so many people never thanked him.
The vaccine itself. Isn't it great that the vaccine even existed? Because without it existing, Dr. Salk could have worked in his laboratory until he was blue in the face, and he would not have discovered the vaccine for polio. So it's wonderful that there is a vaccine that exists, it's wonderful that he discovered it.
Now, what if he had discovered it and then just played with it for forty-years? If he just enjoyed it. He had discovered it. He could have just played with it for forty-years, it was his, but he didn't. What did he do? He passed it on to other people. And those other people gave it to you, gave it to me, gave it to all of us. Many doctors, nurses, and health people passed the vaccine on to others.
Now, can you all feel gratitude and thankfulness to Dr. Salk right now? Can you be thankful that there is a vaccine? Can you be thankful to all the doctors and nurses who have given it to you?
Now, there's heaps of other vaccines. Milk. You can drink nice pasteurized milk. Why? Because Marie and Louis Pasteur discovered how to clean milk, to make it pure, so that people didn't die from drinking bad milk. And there's a lot of other vaccines, there's heaps of them. Fine. You can be thankful to these medical people, you can be thankful to them. Medicine, you can be thankful to all the people who give it to you.
Now, let me ask you three questions. First, Do you respect the Buddha? The man who started this whole teaching, who found all this, discovered it, was able to teach it to others in such clear ways that everyone of us here have benefited from it? Would you actually feel thankful, respectful to the Buddha, for what he has done for you? Now, I hope the answer is "yes". And that it's even easier than for Dr. Salk. Dr. Salk only saved your leg. The Buddha has basically saved your mind and your heart. So if you can say "yes" to the question, "Do you respect the Buddha?" Good! That's one.
Do you respect the teachings, the Dhamma? Are you thankful that you have these teachings? They are such wonderful teachings to have. What was it like before you learned anything about the Dhamma? Would you trade the person you are now for the person you were before you stated meditation? I wouldn't. These wonderful teachings are so great. Do you respect the Dhamma, the Teachings? Most, if not all, of you would say "yes".
The third question: Do you respect the Sangha? And in particular the Noble Sangha, all these men and the women, over the past two-and-a-half thousand years who were partly of fully enlightened, and who have kept this practice going on a very high level. Kept it pure, kept it going, many of them taught it to others so that we can get it two and a half thousand years after the Buddha died. But these men and women who have worked to become partly or fully enlightened, they've kept it pure, and kept it going for so long. Do you respect these people, this Noble Sangha? For most if not all of you the answer is "yes".
If you have answered "yes" to all three questions, then you're a Buddhist. It's a matter of respect. It's not a matter of belief. In other religious: in Christianity, in Judaism, etc., it's a matter of belief. In Buddhism, it's a matter of respect. Now, this is even more clear if you talk to Thai people. They don't ask me, "Am I Christian? Am I Jew? Am I Buddhist?" That's not what they actually say. They don't say, "Are you a Buddhist? Are you a Christian?" They don't say it like that. In the Thai language, what they say is, "Do you respect Christ's teachings? Do you respect the Buddha's teachings?" That's how they define a Buddhist, or a Christian. Not by what they say they are, but by whether the person actually respects the teachings. So it's a matter of respect. If you do respect the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, then you are a Buddhist.